Part 3

Continued from Part 2
cheekaTi guha neevu chintala cheli neevu
naaTaka rangaanivE manasa tegina patangaanivE
yenduku vala chEvO yenduku vaga chEvO
yenduku ragilEvO yEmai migilEvO
yenduku ragilEvO yEmai migilEvO
mounamE nee baasha O mooga manasa

The purpose of lyrics is never to provide a play-by-play commentary on the action enacted in the scene. Dialogues usually take care of that department. In cases, when lyrics over-step their boundaries and drive deep into the dialogues space, the results are never pleasing on the ear. The task of the lyrical word is to condense the action into a format that supports a greater meaning and a greater understanding of the character of the scene. To put it broadly, while prose aims at practicality, poetry aims at philosophy; while prose has to be precise, poetry has the liberty to wander around; prose is specific, while poetry is generic. Commercial movies seldom provide the opportunity of observing human nature from close quarters to the lyricists. The same themes of love, revenge, attraction and separation raise their heads over and over, and all that the lyricist can do to quench his thirst for thematic variety, is try reflecting his philosophy in those aforementioned themes. But what if, the theme is ripe with instances that not only provide the much required variation for the lyricist, but also gives him ample scope to delve into the crux of those themes and comment upon them? And what better variations in a theme, than the vagaries of life? And what better changes in a theme than the kaleidoscope of life? Love, affection, trust, sympathy, bitterness, jealousy, avarice, greed, frustration, resolve, anger, pain - by assigning each of these traits to each of the characters in the script, the maker not only sets up the situations to allow for enough dramatic moments, but also aids the lyricist to continue along the journey, observing all the above said emotions from a higher plane, poetically. Sometimes, anger is a raw emotion like a volcano burst, other times it is mixed emotion, like when combined with helplessness, anger is simmering underneath. The pallete - rich, the colors - plenty, the combinations - countless.

santaana moolikalam samsaara baanisalam
santaana lakshmi manadiraa tammuDU sampaadanokaDi baruvuraa
ee puNyabhoomilO puTTaDam mana tappaa
aavESam aapukOni amma naannadE tappaa
gangalO munakEsi kaashayam kaTTaeyi bradar
sApATu eToo laedu paaTaina paaDu bradar

Frustration among the unemployed in never more palpable than in those sad words of Balachander's chief wordsmith - Acharya Atraeya. Among all the writers that Balachander worked with, none came close to understanding the exact mood and tone he was aiming for, more than Atraeya. Consider the above stanza. The hero is really confused where to pin the blame to. "The system" is an obvious choice. "The system" is like "God" - an entity that cannot talk back. But the system includes the hero, breathing the same air and sharing the same space. "The system" is also responsible for the population explosion - fewer hands feeding more mouths. The hero turns his ire towards his creators - another obvious choice (Consider the parallel to another gem of Atraeya from "antulaeni kadha" - nannaDDigi talli tanDri kannaaraa, naa pillE naaku cheppi puTTaaraa, paapam punyam naadi kaadE pOve picchamma, naaru pOsi neeru pOse nadhuDu vaaDamma"). Unable to find the root cause of his problem, he resorts to philosophy (vaedAntam) (telisaeTlu cheppEdi siddaantam, adi teliyaka pOtEne vedaantam - Atraeya). The tone of the song matches the attitude of the hero perfectly. Though he is frustrated, he has not completely lost hope. Though he is angry, he does not fail to notice the reasons for his situation. There is a fine line here between cynicism and realism, the same fine line that separates frustration and desperation. Satire is a very potent weapon in able hands. Add satire to sarcasm, the result is just explosive. While satires lash out like a whip, sarcasm pokes at it with a fine prick. This tone is never more evident than in - mana talli annapoorNa, mana anna daanakarNa, mana bhoomi vEdabhoomiraa tammuDoo, mana keerti manchu konDaraa, Digreelu tecchukoni chippachEta pucchukoni, Dhilliki chErinaamu dEhi dEhi anTunnaamu dESaanni paalinchE bhaavi paurulam bradar! The rich cultural heritage of the land ending up in the begging bowls of its future - the statement aptly applying to the rulers and the subjects alike in this textbook example for satire and sarcasm.

eduru choopulO edanu pinDagaa
yaeLLu gaDipenu Sakuntala
viraha baadhanu marachipOvagaa
nidura pOyenu oormiLa
anurAgamae nijamani manasokaTae daani rujuvani
tudi jayamu praemadaenani baliyainavi bratukulennO viyOgamu

kept apart by distance and pulled apart by the situations, the lovers stay united in thought and mind, throughout. "marO charitra" is Balachander's attempt at rewriting the history, when the situations test the mettle of their love and strength of the vow - till death do us apart!, as he rewrites the phrase as "even if death does us apart!". Again, Atraeya stands it steadfastly to capture the innocence of the first love (pehlaa nashA, pehlA khumAr (intoxication) - Majrooh Sultanpuri) untainted by the wiles of the world and untouched by the 'maturities' of the grown-ups. When the world around looks so full of promise, the heart knows nothing but to thank everyone around - naatO kalisi naDachina kaaLLaku, naalO ninnE nimpina kaLLaku, ninnE pilichE naa pedavulaku, neekai chikkina naa naDumunaku, kOTi danDaalu sata kOTi danDaalu. (Observe the beautiful usage of "neekai chikkina naDumu" - the poet does not clarify whether it is "choopuku chikkina naDumu" or "chaetiki chikkina naDumu"). From the eternal hope of "nuvvainaa nee neeDainaa aenaaDainaa naa tODounaa?" to the pleasant of surprise of "baashalEnidi bandamunnadi mana iddarini jata koorchinadi", from the melancholy of "lEnidi kOrEvu unadi vadilEvu oka porapaaTuku yugamulu pogilEvu" to the resignation of "veltAru veLLaeTi vALLu, cheppaeseyi tudi veeDukOlu, unTAru ruNamunna vALLu, vinTAru nee gunDe rodalu", Atraeya approached most of Balachander's themes from a strict philosophical sense more than from a poetic viewpoint. The themes are meant to offer an insight into human tendencies and not as mere objects that would enhance the beauty of the poetry. The style of the language used therefore is more prosaic than it is poetic. Continuing in the same vein, that in Balachander's world hope is a dangerous feeling, the heroine just muses for a moment "kannepillavani kannulunnavani kavita cheppi meppinchAvE gaDasari, chinna navvu navvi ninnu duvvi duvvi kalisi naenu meppincahedi yeppuDanni" - just a glimmer of hope, just a sliver of apprehension, just a touch of optimism, just a dash of cynicism - vintage Balachander, classic Atraeya!

Balachander's loyalty to Atraeya can only be surpassed by his dogged dedication to the man who made the tunes memorable, allowing the words to sparkle this making the listening experience long-lasting - M.S.Viswanathan. Barring a few times, when Balachander used Illayaraja (for Manmadha Leela, itself boasting of a couple of good numbers - "kusalaemaenaa kurradaana" (Veturi)) and A.R.Rahman (for Paravasam), Balachander's association with Viswanathan can be rivalled only a few other combinations in the film history - Adurti-Mahadevan, Viswanath-Mahadevan, Bharatiraja-Illayaraja, Raj Kapoor-Shankar-Jaikishan and such. Here is another talent that understood the needs of the director and catered precisely to them in his own inimitable fashion. Viswanathan belongs to the same old school of Mahadevan, where the music director does not apread around his good tunes among a few films, working towards longevity in the career than memorability. The haunting scores of "marO charitra", "Akali rajyam", "guppeDu manasu", "idi kadha kaadu", "antulaeni kadha", "andamaina anubhavam", and the like wherein each tune vies with the next for more attention, bears a testament to the creative genius of Viswanathan, and Balachander's devotion towards extracting those wonderful tunes. The experimental tunes in "iTu aTu kaani hrudayam tOTi endukurA ee tondara neeku", "tALi kaTTu SubhavaeLa meDalO kalyANa mAla", "kanne pillavani kannulunnavani", "kalisi unTae kaladu sukhamu" and not to forget, SP Balu's full throated rendition of "sambhO siva sambhO, vinaravOranna anera vaemanna" (andmaina anubhavam), not only flow along with the tempo of the movie, but also tend to stand on their own merit and be evaluated along with the rest. Though it is quite difficult to take a stand whether Balachander's movies were glossed over with the combined talents of Atraeya/Viswanathan or whether Atraeya/Viswanathan should be grateful to Balachander for the right platform and creative freedom that his themes provided, it is quite certain that telugu filmdom is forever indebted to the combined talents of the trio - Balachander, Atraeya and Viswanathan.

(Cont'd in last part)

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